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Vojislav Kostunica interview for Associated Press |
Yugoslavia's last president says new elections best for troubled Serbia
BELGRADE, Serbia-Montenegro (AP) Serbia's only hope for economic reform and political stability is to replace the ruling coalition, which is rife with bickering and scandal, a leading opposition figure and former president of Yugoslavia said.
Vojislav Kostunica, who played a key role in toppling President Slobodan Milosevic in 2000, said new elections would put a stop to government infighting and help bring stability to Serbia's shaky politics.
Kostunica stepped down as president earlier this year when Yugoslavia reshaped itself into the loose union of Serbia and Montenegro. He said in an interview with The Associated Press that he has a far better understanding of Serbs than the ruling coalition does and should be the one to lead the country.
"I am stunned by their inability to see what is really happening," Kostunica said of the 17-party alliance ruling Serbia. "It has alienated itself from the people and is completely out of touch with how ordinary people live - engulfed in despair and poverty."
Serbia's political landscape was thrown into disarray after reformist Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic was assassinated on March 12. The slaying left Serbia, still struggling to shed Milosevic's legacy of international ostracism and ethnic wars of the 1990s, without a widely popular leader to put difficult reforms into place.
Kostunica ran twice in attempts to elect a Serbian president last year, coming in first with the majority of votes both times. But the elections were annulled because voter turnout was too low, and a new ballot is unlikely soon, while general elections are scheduled for next year.
"Personally, the most important encouragement for me is that I have the support of those who seek fundamental changes in Serbia, a rule of law and true democracy, not paper-thin reforms," Kostunica said.
Since Djindjic's slaying, the pro-Western coalition has been weakened by internal bickering.
This week, Djindjic's successor, Prime Minister Zoran Zivkovic, appealed to leaders to unite behind common goals and to pull Serbia out of economic decline. Many saw it simply as Zivkovic's last-ditch attempt to gloss over the deep rifts in the coalition.
Kostunica's Democratic Party of Serbia severed ties with the ruling coalition two years ago and is now the main opposition group. It has been steadfastly critical of the current leadership.
"We can join Europe's mainstream only if we abolish vestiges of the past," Kostunica said. "These arguments, their feuds, reflect an inability to do this."
Kostunica and Djindjic were united in 2000 when they toppled Milosevic. Kostunica took over the top job, while Djindjic became the prime minister of Serbia, then the dominant Yugoslav republic.
But Kostunica, a nationalist, was forced to step down in February by a plan brokered by the European Union that reshaped the Yugoslav federation.
He claims his party has the best take on the "pulse of the nation," striving for reforms while protective of "Serbia's own interests, our dignity."
Kostunica rebuffed criticism for his overtures to Milosevic's Socialists and ultranationalist Radicals during his term in office.
"The past two years were a time of crisis, when we needed to assemble the majority of the parties, unite opposing views, even those who locked horns like bulls at times," he said.
"But now, new elections are ... the best way out of our political agony."
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